The Hockey Mom on camp selection: Get input, trust instincts

Choosing a camp is no time for
hasty decisions. While a great camp inspires and recharges
children, a poorly run camp can ruin a precious week of summer. In
the case of hockey camps, the last thing I want to do is diminish
Sam’s desire to play come fall with unnecessary and unhappy
summer ice time. So here is the process this time-crunched but
slightly neurotic hockey mom recommends.

Read New England Hockey
Journal

OK, that’s a shameless
plug, but it’s true. There are pages and pages of local and
regional camps, which can give you a great starting point to see
what is out there and begin the process of thinking about what will
work best for your family, no matter what age or level of player
you have.

Ask your
child

Here’s my advice.
Don’t ask your child if he or she wants to go to hockey camp.
Tell them you aren’t going to let him or her go to hockey
camp this summer and see what their reaction is. Does their mouth
drop open right before they launch into a bitter protest? Then sign
them up! Do they jump for joy? Then consider waiting until the end
of the summer and doing a brush-up camp or a few lessons when
they’ve had some time away. If their reaction is more
ambiguous, sit down with them and ask a few more questions.

How much hockey do you want to
play this summer? What did you like about last year’s camps
if you did any? What didn’t you like? Where are your friends
going? This is an important question because some children are OK
with going to a camp where they don’t know anyone well, but
many others need to be surrounded with buddies to have a good time.
Only you and your child know what will work best for them.

Ask their
coaches

The first thing I did when I
realized camps were filling up and we had made no plans was to
shoot an email to Sam’s coaches. I asked them not which camps
they would recommend, what types of skills they felt were most
important for him right now. They had great suggestions that gave
me a researching shortcut. Within an hour I had a short list of
camps.

Ask their
friends

Sam does great with one or two
friends but is more interested in playtime than practice if
he’s with a pack. However, it’s a non-starter if he
doesn’t know anyone going at all. So reach out and see where
teammates and friends are going, and if you’ve found a great
camp, do some active recruiting if it will help your child
succeed.

Ask yourself

What does my child really need?
A break from structure? A chance to reconnect with interests
neglected during the school year? If hockey camp is a go, what type
of skills do they need to work on the most? What about the parents?
How much childcare coverage do you need over the summer? How much
structure do YOU need or want? What’s the budget?

* * *

Here’s how my process
worked with Sam this year. As you’ll see, the more organic
you keep it, the better.

Step 1. Ask
Sam

Me: “Sam, even though most
of your team is doing one, I’m not sure we are going to send
you to hockey camp this year.”

Sam: “Why?”

Me: “I think you need a
break.”

Sam: “OK. Can we get some
Oreos at the store?”

Apparently Sam didn’t have
a driving need for hockey camp. But then again, two days later, he
asked me what camps he would be doing.

Me: “Probably sailing
camp. Maybe some Lego robotics camp. Why, what kind of camp do you
want to go to?”

Sam: “Hockey camp. I wanna
learn to deke people out and carry the puck through traffic.
I’m tired of always losing it.”

Me: “OK.” See how
easy that was?

Step 2. Ask his
coaches

Sam has gotten a lot better as a
skater, but a popular recommendation was for a skating-only clinic
to learn techniques there are not time for in practice. That
didn’t jibe with Sam’s wishes to work on puck-handling,
but a coach found one for us that was only a couple of hours for a
few days, hardly a major impact on the summer schedule.

To fulfill Sam’s request,
I took the advice of several coaches and friends and signed him up
for a particular end-of summer stickhandling camp, which several of
their own kids had attended.

Step 3. Ask his
friends

Still in progress as we try to
nail down the exact dates we are away on vacation and which camp
session we will do. But as soon as that’s complete, an email
is going out to his team.

Step 4. Ask
myself

Not a lot of questioning was
needed here. We need a break this summer, so we are keeping most
time for free-range play. We were in complete agreement to limit
camps to less than four weeks of the summer, and no more than
half-day. I’m lucky that my work is flexible and I can do
that, but there are an incredible variety of camps with schedules,
fees and curriculums to satisfy every family. In fact, you’ll
find a lot of them in the pages of New England Hockey Journal.

My final piece of advice? You
need to do what is right for your child and your family.
Don’t let other parents, coaches, friends or well-meaning
family members make the camp decision for you. If you take your
time, listen to your child and honor your instincts, you
can’t go wrong. Instead, you can go to the right camp and
then go to the beach.

April Bowling is a mother of
two, including one avid little hockey player named Sam. Owner of
TriLife Coaching, a multisport training firm in Essex, Mass., April
also co-founded the TriROK Foundation.